CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK ACTING UP THE THEATRE OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS -,- ?-':/I- Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. ". - ,'qi. /' --. .- -- .........) -:-.\ \ .j \ " t. . '1" AMERICAN HWANGAP Lloyd Suh's new comedy, presented by the Play Company and Ma-Yi Theatre, centers on a Ko- rean family in West Texas celebrating its patri- arch's sixtieth birthday. Trip Cull man directs. In previews. Opens May 17. (The Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd St. 212-352-3101.) AMERICAS OFF BROADWAY This festival culls plays produced by American regional companies, beginning with Morris Pan- ych's "The Dishwashers," directed by Byam Ste- vens, from the Chester Theatre Company, in Mas- sachusetts, which opens May 13. "A Play on Words," by Brian Dykstra, from Ithaca's Kitchen Theatre Company, in previews, opens May 17. (59E59, at 59 E. 59th St. 212-279-4200.) BERLIN/W ALL At the Public, David Hare performs two of his monologues: "Berlin," about the city twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and "Wall," about the IsraeVPalestine security fence. Stephen Dal- dry directs. May 14-17. (425 Lafayette St. 212- 967-7555.) BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON: THE CONCERT VERSION As part of the Public LAB series, Alex Timbers, in association with Les Freres Corbusier, wrote and directs this musical, a satirical look at the seventh President. Michael Friedman wrote the music and lyrics. In previews. Opens May 17. (Public, 425 Lafayette St. 212-967-7555.) CORALINE Stephin Merritt, of the Magnetic Fields, wrote the music and lyrics for this musical, and David Greenspan wrote the book, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, about a bored, lonely girl who steps into a fantasy world. Jayne Houdyshell stars in the title role. Leigh Silverman directs the MCC Theatre production. In previews. (Lucille Lortel, 121 Christopher St. 212-279-4200.) GROUNDSWELL The New Group presents a thriller by Ian Bruce, in which two South African lodge employees hatch a get-rich-quick scheme involving nearby diamond mines. Larry Bryggman, David Lans- bury, and Souleymane Sy Savane star; Scott El- liott directs. In previews. Opens May 18. (Acorn, 410 W. 42nd St. 212-279-4200.) OUR HOUSE Michael Mayer directs the New York première of a new dark comedy by Theresa Rebeck, about a news anchor who becomes the star of a reality TV show. Previews begin May 15. (Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St. 212-279-4200.) THE RIVALRY Nonnan Corwin wrote this play, about the 1858 de- bates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Doug- las. Vincent Dowling directs. Previews begin May 15. (Irish Repertory, 132 W. 22nd St. 212-727-2737.) 10 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE Zakiyyah Alexander's new play, about two es- tranged sisters attempting to reconcile, kicks off Second Stage's uptown summer series. Jackson Gay directs. In previews. (McGinn/Cazale, 2162 Broadway, at 76th St. 212-246-4422.) VIEUX CARRÉ Austin Pendleton directs the Tennessee Williams play, set in a New Orleans boarding house. In previews. (Pearl, 80 St. Marks PI. 212-598-9802.) ,; 6 ',f ' rV" .- " .) ---..... \ \, - :\\ ,.. .., (.-y (. .,- * ./ ...... .. ". ',j ': i j') -, .' Þ-,/ \, . * * . o. . .. trr Annie Clark, who does business as St. Vincent, wrote much of her new album, "Actor," by drawing, not playing. Mainly a guitarist, Clark began the album in a French hotel room in December of 2007, using GarageBand software and a pair of headphones, "drawing notes one by one, until they sounded how they should sound." When she had finished eleven songs, a friend printed them out in traditional notation, which she and her band used to learn the material. Clark and her music land in the spot right between the laptop and staff paper: progressive rock. In Clark's hands, though, this genre becomes lighter, more elastic, and less sure of itself: all h d " A ". to t e goo. ctor IS elaborate and wide awake. There are brief echoes of Robert Fripp's guitar mandalas and XTC's sense of ornate and generous melody. Clark is not big on fretboard hammering and light-speed runs, but she can get deliciously, specifically aggressive with a whammy bar. That move alone makes it worth a trip to Webster Hall when St. Vincent plays a full-band set on May 20. -Sasha Frere-Jones NOW PLAYING ACCENT ON YOUTH Samson Raphaelson's 1934 comedy is an urbane, well-written meditation from a literate time gone by, about a successful writer who is losing the ba ttle between his work and his women. The work goes swimmingly; the relationships with women don't. As the morose writer, David Hyde Pierce does his droll thing, ably supported by Charles Kimbrough as his plucky butler. The cast- ing of the women is more problematic; they make the struggle between life and art a rather easier choice than it should be. Daniel Sullivan directed this pleasant revival, which could have used more heat under it. (Samuel J. Friedman, 261 W. 47th St. 212-239-6200.) CHRISTMAS IS MILES AWAY At the Connelly, Babel Theatre Project presents this drama by Chloe Moss, which follows three English friends as they grow apart. Geordie Broad- water directs. (220 E. 4th St. 212-352-3101.) DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS At the beginning of Eugene O'Neill's 1924 play, set on a New England farm circa 1850, Eben Cabot (Pablo Schreiber) pines for his dead mother. His grief is exacerbated by the man he holds responsible for his mother's death: his father, Ephraim (Brian Dennehy). The di- rector, Robert Falls, has cut the play from three acts to one, and made the script more openly erotic and less biased against the character of Abbie (Carla Gugino), the new bride whom Ephraim brings home, and whom Eben takes to and against from the first. It's a measure of Falls's inventiveness as a director that Abbie and Eben's desire for each other is rarely spo- ken. And when the inevitable happens-Eben and Abbie consummate their passion, thus en- tering the "hopeless hope" that O'Neill claimed as the credo of many of his characters-we can barely stand the suspense. (Reviewed in our issue of 5/11/09.) (St. James, 246 W. 44th St. 212-239-6200.) EVERYDAY RAPTURE Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott, who also stars, wrote this coming-of-age story, about a Mennonite girl who goes to Manhattan. Michael Mayer directs. (Second Stage, 307 W. 43rd St. 212-246-4422.) GALILEO / THE SCIENCE PLAYS Milk Can Theatre Company performs two plays in repertory: "Galileo," Bertolt Brecht's medi- tation on the mathematician's philosophies (di- rected by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer), and "The Science Plays," a compendium of short works spanning topics from Archimedes to the future. (Urban Stages, 259 W. 30th St. 212-868-4444. Through May 17.) THE HIROSHIMA PROJECT This monthlong event includes readings of American and Japanese plays and Steven Oka- zaki's documentary "White Light/Black Rain." Chiori Miyagawa's new play, "I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour," depicts two love stories set in that city. (Ohio, 66 Wooster St. 212-868-4444.) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE At BAM's Harvey Theatre, Watermill Theatre and the all-male company Propeller present the Shake- speare comedy, directed by Edward Hall. (651 Fulton St., Brooklyn. 718-636-4100. Through May 17.) OFFICES Glib, terse, and inconsequential, these anecdotes probably wouldn't have found their way before paying customers were not the playwright, Ethan Coen, one of the filmmaking Coen brothers. More story, more thought, and a little less self-satisfaction would have been welcome. E Murray Abraham as a panhandler who briefly becomes a suit is almost worth the price of admission. Crisply directed by Neil Pepe on a revolving stage that has a life of its own. (Atlantic Theatre Company, 336 W. 20th St. 212-279-4200.) SOPHISTRY It's hard to imagine a less timely revival than Jon- athan Marc Sherman's 1993 play, about hedonis- tic undergrads at a New England college and sexual-harassment allegations made against a be- loved philosophy professor by an unstable stu- dent.It's clear what must have seemed fresh then- 0 hard-drinking undergrads hooking up, making '<i: your-mother jokes, smoking from bongs, coming ð to the defense of a beloved gay professor-ma- terial buoyed by its cultural immediacy and fu-